James Edward McDonald

The paper cultivates a large oak microbiome collection to identify disease-suppressive microbial communities that reduce pathogen levels in oak trees.

This study examines how environmental factors and disease affect the microbiome of oak trees across different tissues, revealing tissue-specific responses and identifying changes in microbiome composition and function in diseased trees.

The paper shows that chemical cues from beetle larvae enhance bacterial growth and virulence gene expression in a plant pathogen.